Along NATO’s eastern flank, from Finland to Poland, allied nations are bracing for what officials call Russia’s “next phase” — a hybrid war of drones, cyberattacks, and sabotage that rarely makes headlines but never stops.
Washington Times Defense and National Security Correspondent John T. Seward traveled the border to see it firsthand.
A casualty calls out for help near NATO’s border. His unit moves fast with combat medical care, putting him on a stretcher and getting him out of harm’s way. It’s only a training exercise, but the scenario is a real-world risk.
This is Poland’s border with Belarus, Russia’s closest regional partner. All along the eastern edge of NATO, troops are rehearsing for the possibility that Russia’s war in Ukraine ignites a broader conflict. And while Washington debates what NATO is worth.
The numbers that we spend are so crazy on NATO, and they weren’t there for us. — President Trump
The countries on this flank are already preparing for what they call the next phase. Over the course of a week, I traveled that line from Finland to Estonia to Poland, speaking with soldiers, diplomats, and officials who are closest to the threat of Russian aggression and understand just how far it goes.
So what is NATO worth to the United States?
Along this border, the calculation looks different. It’s not just what countries pay into NATO, but what America and its allies risk if just one spark lights the powder keg of conflict the alliance was built to prevent.
After about 12 hours of travel, I’m here in Helsinki, Finland, roughly 125 miles away from the Russian border and on NATO’s eastern flank. I’m here talking with Finnish officials about their role in NATO and how they feel about the Trump administration’s recent rhetoric regarding European allies contributing to that defense.
Finland is one point on NATO’s eastern flank, the alliance’s exposed edge with Russia and Belarus, running from Norway and Finland in the Arctic, south through Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the center, and down to Poland. Now that edge is being tested.
Russian drones and fighters have crossed into NATO airspace. Undersea cables in the Baltic Sea have been damaged, and borders have been pressured by Moscow in ways that are no longer easy to dismiss as peacetime, what some officials are already calling a shadow war.
Finland is one of NATO’s newest members, and when I spoke to officials here in Helsinki, they spoke about how Finland’s standing army is one of the largest in Europe, and about how they’ve been hitting many of the defense targets that the Trump administration has been pushing for for decades.
Finland has closed its border with Russia. And one of the interesting things about talking to officials here is that this conversation is no longer abstract or just rhetoric. It’s very real and very present in everyday life here in Finland.
We spoke with the Minister of Foreign Affairs who pointed out that the actual nuclear arsenal that Russia has, the closest one to the United States, is in the northern portion of Russia and is actually monitored and secured by the Finnish Armed Forces. She pointed to both the Arctic security that the Finns provide as well as that sort of close understanding of Russia as two of the reasons that the Finns are continuing to contribute to NATO in an outsized way. And in a way that doesn’t match with Trump rhetoric.
We as the Nordics, we of course know exactly what’s going on on the Russian side in the Arctic. And for instance, Russia’s main nuclear arsenal is placed in the Arctic. And those weapons are not headed against Helsinki or Stockholm, but the goals are rather Washington, D.C. or New York. — Elina Valtonen, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland
The threat looks completely different from the ground along NATO’s eastern flank than it does from in Washington. Countries along the Russian border have been preparing for conflict quietly, seriously, and largely without credit for decades.
Underneath Helsinki is a network of tunnels and shelters built into the bedrock, capable of housing the city’s entire population. What struck me wasn’t that it existed. It was how unremarkable it was to the people who lived there.
Finns grow up using them as sports arenas, for storage, for events, for daily life. The idea that you might need them for something more serious wasn’t an unsettling thought for those I spoke with. It was simply understood. That quiet, generational acceptance of being prepared for the threat next door.
Watch the video for the full conversation, featuring:
- Elina Valtonen, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland
- Jukka-Pekka Schroderus, Civil Defense Planning Officer
- Mikko Simola, Commander of the Gulf of Finland Coast Guard District
- Antti Hakkanen, Minister of Defence of Finland
- Jonatan Vseviov, Secretary General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia
Read more:
- Russia aggressively recruiting spies at NATO’s edge; Estonian intel cites new twists in shadow war
- Poland offers to build permanent U.S. troop bases to ‘clarify’ deployment situation
- Poland now has the most capable military in Europe, leadership says
- Finland points to Arctic as Trump questions value of NATO
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